September 1, 2010 Update
From Kevin Almond, interim executive associate dean:
On April 9, 2010, the UNC Board of Governors accepted our proposal to create a satellite program of the UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy. This was the culmination to a lot of activity that has occurred since the fall of 2009 although discussions began as early as 2008 when the UNC School of Medicine began the creation of their satellite program at Mission Hospital in Asheville.
On May 11, 2010, representatives from the UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy, Mission Hospital, Mission Foundation, the Asheville Chamber of Commerce, UNC Asheville, and Mountain AHEC had a preliminary meeting to discuss the future of the collaboration just a day after the our faculty endorsed the new program.
During the month of June, several groups began outlining the steps needed to accomplish our mission, including raising $4 million in private funds since this is not a state-funded project, identifying facility space, and identifying people in Asheville and Chapel Hill to devise and implement an action plan.
On July 9, 2010, I was named the interim executive associate dean to head up the project for the next twenty-four months. The new project will require approximately 70 to 80 percent of my time with the remainder devoted to my role as president of the Pharmacy Foundation of North Carolina. Jennifer Hardy will assume the title of executive director of the Pharmacy Alumni Association and we will hire a major gifts officer to continue fund raising for the Chapel Hill campus.
To date, several committees have been formed and are working concurrently to enroll a class of approximately twenty students for fall of 2011. We must meet documentation requirements of SACS and ACPE by spring of 2011, hire three faculty members by April 1, raise approximately $2 million by June 30, identify and upfit space with technology by July 15, and of course, recruit the best and brightest students by end of February. Needless to say, it's a lot of work in a short period of time, but we have a lot of talented individuals contributing their time and expertise to making this an expansion befitting the name of the UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy.
On behalf of everyone working on this project, thank you for your support and encouragement.
